Jane Wilde
| birth_place = Wexford, Ireland | death_date = February | death_place = Chelsea, London, England | othername = Lady Wilde | occupation = Poet, writer | spouse = Sir William Wilde | children = Oscar Wilde, Willie Wilde | domesticpartner = | website = }} Jane Francesca Agnes, Lady Wilde (27 December 1821 - 3 February 1896) was an Irish poet, who wrote under the pen name "Speranza," and a collector of Irish folktales, best known today as the mother of poet Oscar Wilde.Jane Francesca Wilde (1821-1896), Ricorso. Web, Mar. 9, 2017. Life Wilde was born Jane Francesca Elgee, the youngest of the 4 children of Sarah (Kingsbury) {died 1851) and Charles Elgee (1783–1824), a Wexford solicitor. Her great-grandfather was an Italian who had come to Wexford in the 18th century.Hesketh Pearson, The Life of Oscar Wilde, reprinted by Penguin Books, 1985. p. 18. She wrote for the Young Ireland movement of the 1840's, publishing poems in The Nation under the pseudonym of Speranza. Her works included pro-Irish independence and anti-British writing; she was sometimes known as "Speranza of the Nation". Charles Gavan Duffy was the editor when "Speranza" wrote commentary calling for armed revolution in Ireland. The authorities at Dublin Castle shut down the paper and brought the editor to court. Duffy refused to name who had written the offending article. "Speranza" reputedly stood up in court and claimed responsibility for the article. The confession was ignored by the authorities. But in any event the newspaper was permanently shut down by the authorities.Joy Melville, "Wilde, Jane Francesca Agnes, Lady Wilde (1821–1896)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. She married William Wilde on 12 November 1851, and they had 3 children: William Charles Kingsbury Wilde (1852–1899), Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900), and Isola Francesca Emily Wilde (1857–1867). She was an early advocate of women's rights, and campaigned for better education for women. She invited the suffragist Millicent Fawcett to her home to speak on female liberty. She praised the passing of the Married Women's Property Act of 1883, preventing women from having to enter marriage 'as a bond slave, disenfranchised of all rights over her fortune'.Lady Wilde, "A New Era in English and Irish Social Life," The Gentlewoman, January 1883. William Wilde was knighted in January 1864, but the family celebrations were short-lived, for in the same year Sir William and Lady Wilde were at the centre of a sensational Dublin court case regarding a young woman called Mary Travers, the daughter of a colleague of Sir William's, who claimed that he had seduced her and who then brought an action against Lady Wilde for libel. Mary Travers won the case and costs of £2,000 were awarded against Lady Wilde. Then, in 1867, their daughter Isola died of fever at the age of nine. In 1871 the two illegitimate daughters of Sir William were burned to death and in 1876 Sir William himself died. The family discovered that he was virtually bankrupt.Terence de Vere White, The Parents of Oscar Wilde, Hodder & Stoughton, 1967. Lady Wilde left Dublin for London in 1879, where she joined her 2 sons, Willie, a journalist, and Oscar, who was making a name for himself in literary circles. She lived with her older son in poverty, supplementing their meagre income by writing for fashionable magazines and producing books based on the researches of her late husband into Irish folklore. Lady Wilde contracted bronchitis in January 1896 and, dying, asked for permission to see Oscar, who was in prison. Her request was refused. It was claimed that her "fetch" appeared in Oscar's prison cell as she died at her home, 146 Oakley Street, Chelsea, on 3 February 1896. Willie Wilde, her older son, was penniless, so Oscar paid for her funeral, which was held on 5 February at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.Cemetery A headstone proved too expensive and she was buried anonymously in common ground. Recognition She was granted a Civil List pension of £50 a year in 1890, "in recognition of her services to literature."MacDonagh, Michael (1900) "Wilde, William Robert Wills," Dictionary of National Biography 61 (edited by Sidney Lee), London: Smith, Elder, 1900, 231. A Celtic Cross monument was erected to mark her grave in Kensal Green Cemetery by the Oscar Wilde Society in 1999. In 1911 American-born writer Anna de Brémont, who claimed to have had a close friendship with Lady Wilde, published a memoir entitled Oscar Wilde and His Mother. Stetz describes de Brémont as a "compulsive fantasist". Publications Poetry *''Poems''. Dublin: James Duffy 1864; Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson, 1870. Non-fiction *"Memoir Of Gabriel Beranger" (William Wilde. Dublin: Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1880. *''Driftwood From Scandinavia''. London: R. Bentley & Son, 1884. *''Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland: With sketches of the Irish past; to which is added a chapter on “The Ancient Race of Ireland” by the late Sir William Wilde''. London: Ward & Downey, 1887. *''Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland: Contributions to Irish lore''. London: Ward & Downey, 1890. *''Notes On Men, Women, And Books: Selected essays''. London: Ward & Downey, 1891. *''Social Studies''. London: Ward & Downey, 1893; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Letters *''Letters to Froken Lotten von Kramer, 1857-1885'' (edited by Karen Sasha Anthony Tipper). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2009. *''Letters to Oscar Wilde, 1875-1895'' (edited by Karen Sasha Anthony Tipper). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2011. *''Letters to Constance Wilde, Friends and Acquaintances'' (edited by Karen Sasha Anthony Tipper). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2013. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Jane Wilde, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 9, 2017. See also *List of Irish poets References External links ;Poems *"The Voice of the Poor" in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895 *Lady Jane Wilde at PoemHunter (93 poems) *Lady Jane Wilde at Poetry Nook (93 poems) ;Audio / video * * [http://www.libraryireland.com/AncientLegendsSuperstitions/Contents.php/ Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland] by Lady Wilde * https://archive.org/stream/poems00wild_0#page/n3/mode/2up Poems by "Speranza" (Lady Wilde), 1864 (scan of a copy found in the Alumnae Library of Elms College) ;About *Speranza (Wilde, Jane Francesca) at Irish Writers Online *A Noble Woman: Lady Jane Wilde at Irish Philosophy *Jane Francesca Wilde at Ricorso Category:Irish people of Italian descent Category:1821 births Category:1896 deaths Category:Oscar Wilde Category:Irish women poets Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Category:19th-century women writers Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Irish poets Category:Irish women writers Category:Poets Category:Poets who died in poverty